How to Play Poker Tournaments

This section covers the rules of tournament play. For further information on CelebPoker tournaments check out our tournaments section and weekly schedule.
There are two types of tournament:

Single Table Tournaments
Multi Table Tournaments

A Single Table Tournaments is launched once the required number of players has registered. A Multi Table Tournament is launched at a specific starting time.

To join a tournament, players pay an entry fee before a tournament starts. There is no rake for tournaments. Instead, players pay a small fee on top of the entrance fee which goes to the house. Winnings are awarded to the top finishers in the tournament using a predetermined prize structure.

Players do not choose a seat at a table and then buy in. Instead they register in a tournament and wait to be assigned a seat. The players are seated at random around the table and each player is given a predetermined number of chips.

Players cannot buy more chips during a tournament. Once players lose all of their chips, they are out of the tournament (freeze-out).

A tournament finishes when one player has won all of the chips.

Play is the same as for Cash Games with the following exceptions:

Players must always post blinds on their turn. They may not leave the table. If they are disconnected or stop playing, the blinds are posted automatically from their stacks, and the hands are automatically folded.

Every player must post a big blind followed by a small blind once around the table. In some situations (when either the player currently on the small blind or the big blind is knocked out) there may be a "dead dealer button". This means that the dealer button does not move to the next player, but instead stays where it is. This is because the big blind and the small blind must not miss any player at the table on its way around. Another consequence of this is that sometimes a small blind is not posted.

Once a player has lost all his/her chips he/she cannot buy any more and is automatically removed from the table.

Timeouts and Disconnections :

If a player times out during a hand in a tournament, the hand is folded if a bet has been made, or checked if no-one has bet (regardless of whether the player is connected or disconnected).

Cancellation or Failure

If the tournament is by some reason cancelled by the house, the buy-in and entry fee costs will be automatically refunded or at a failure manually refunded within 48 hours.